[LOCATION STREET& NUMBER 120 Broadway NOT for PUBLICATION CITY
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Form No. 10-3QO (Rev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOWTO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS ____________TYPE ALL ENTRIES - COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS______ NAME HISTORIC ______Equitable Building____________________________ AND/OR COMMON _____Equitable Building_____________________________ [LOCATION STREET& NUMBER 120 Broadway _NOT FOR PUBLICATION CITY. TOWN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT New York __ VICINITY OF STATE CODE COUNTY CODE New York 16 New York 061 CLASSIFICATION CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS PRESENT USE —DISTRICT _ PUBLIC X_OCCUPIED —AGRICULTURE —MUSEUM _JJfeUILDING(S) X_RR|VATE —UNOCCUPIED X_COMMERCIAL —.PARK -.STRUCTURE —BOTH _WORK IN PROGRESS —EDUCATIONAL —PRIVATE RESIDENCE _SITE PUBLIC ACQUISITION ACCESSIBLE —ENTERTAINMENT —RELIGIOUS —OBJECT _IN PROCESS X-YES: RESTRICTED —GOVERNMENT —SCIENTIFIC —BEING CONSIDERED _YES. UNRESTRICTED —INDUSTRIAL —TRANSPORTATION _NO _ MILITARY —OTHER lOWNER OF PROPERTY Contact: Kenneth Stead , Regional Mgr M Real Estate Div Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S. STREETS NUMBER 1285 Avenue of the Americas______________ CITY TOWN STATE New York VICINITY OF New York LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE REGISTRY OF c New York County Hall of Records STREET & NUMBER 31 Chambers Street CITY, TOWN STATE New York New York REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE None DATE —FEDERAL —STATE —COUNTY —LOCAL DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS CITY. TOWN STATE DESCRIPTION : CONDITION CHECK ONE CHECK ONE JCEXCELLENT .—DETERIORATED _UNALTERED X-ORIGINAL SITE _GOOD _RUINS X—ALTERED _MOVED DATE________ —FAIR —UNEXPOSED DESCRIBETHE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE Erected in 1914-15 by the Equitable Office Building Corporation and mortaged to Equitable Life, the 40-story, steel-and-masonry Equitable Building served as the home office of the Equitable Life Assurance Society from 1915 to 1924. Designed principally by Ernest R. Graham, of Daniel H. Burnham and Company, in the Second Renaissance Revival style and const ructed by Thompson-Sarrett Company, it stands on the site of Equitable ! s first home office, which was built in 1870 and destroyed by fire in 1912. Thus the 120 Broadway address is synonymous with the early history and development of Equitable, and the present building is reflective of both the lofty position that the firm has attained in the insurance industry and the industry's role in American financial history. Because Equitable rapidly outgrew its new home office, company officials moved their operations eventually to a new home office at 393 Seventh Avenue. Equitable sold its mortgage on the 120 Broadway building in 1947 then acquired ownership of the structure in 1958. Today Equitable leases office and banking space in it. Virtually unaltered externally, the east-west oriented Equitable Building rises to a height of 545 feet near the heart of New York ! s financial district, filling the entire block between Broadway, Cedar, Pine, and Nassau Streets. It rests on a rock bed foundation #5 feet below the curb; a steel-rod-streng thened, six-foot-wide cofferdam; and 80 steel and concrete piers. Over a three-level basement is a six-story base supporting an H-shaped shaft that creates, in the interior, four distinct office towers. Faced with brick, limestone, granite, and terra cotta, the structure weighs more than 280,000 tons, contains more than 26 million cubic feet of space, and offers approximately 30,000 square feet of office space on each shaft floor. It contains approximately 5 S 000 windows, nearly all of which are one-over-one sash; 10,000 doors, many of which have ornate brass knobs dis playing the letter "E;" and 56 elevators hanging in brick shafts. The original cars have been replaced, but the 1915 trim remains on some of the elevator corridors and entrances. The base of the Equitable Building extends 7 bays along the west and east facades and 18 along the north and south sides. Three-story, fluted, Corinthian, granite pilasters flank each bay and support a one-story-high band that encircles the structure at the fourth-floor level and is highlighted by deritiled cornices above and below and by horizontal window openings separated by terra cotta medallions. A similar band, with double, vertical window openings, passes around the building at the seventh-floor^ level, linking the base to the shaft. 01 SIGNIFICANCE PERIOD AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE - CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW -PREHISTORIC —ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC —COMMUNITY PLANNING —LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE _ RELIGION 1400-1499 _ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC —CONSERVATION —LAW —SCIENCE ^1500-1599 _AGRICULTURE _ECONOMICS —LITERATURE —SCULPTURE .1600-1699 —ARCHITECTURE —EDUCATION —MILITARY _SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN ,1700-1799 _ART —ENGINEERING —MUSIC —THEATER .1800-1899 X_COMMERCE —EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT _PHILOSOPHY —TRANSPORTATION _1900- —COMMUNICATIONS —INDUSTRY —POLITICS/GOVERNMENT _OTHER (SPECIFY) _INVENTION Site:l870-present BUILDER/ARCHITECT Ernest R. Graham SPECIFIC DATES Bide;: 1915-present. Thompson-Sarrett Company STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Equitable Life Assurance Society and its founder. Henry Baldwin Hyde, played an essential role in both the ante bellum beginning of the life insurance industry and its tre mendous postbellum growth. According1; to distinguished instit utional historian Morton Keller, the organization of Equitable in 1859 "marked the opening of a new period of insurance expansion" as well as the commencement of Hyde's emergence as "the prime mover and best embodiment of the post-Civil War life insurance business. "^ Within 8 years of its founding Equitable ranked third in new business among American life insurance companies, and by 1886 it had become the largest life insurance company in the world. In achieving and holding this position for two decades Equitable popularized tontine insurance, offered the Nation's first incontestible life policies, and pursued an active over seas expansion program that put agents in almost 100 countries, more than twice the combined number served by its two closest rivals. Moreover, in the opinion of prominent historian Daniel J. Boorstin, by promoting agency expansion and company growth through a variety of salesmanship programs, Hyde '''created the American sales convention." 4- In short s says Keller, he "ident ified the life insurance business with the most vital economic drives of the time," thereby demonstrating that he "belonged to that select group of late nineteenth century entrepreneurs which included Andrew Carnegie, James J. Hill, and John D. Rockefeller."3 (continued) 1Morton Keller, The Life Insurance Enterprise, 1885-191Q: A Study in the Limits of Corporate Power (Cambridge, 1963), 7V 16. ~Danielp J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience (Mew York, 1973), 184. 3Keller, Life Insurance Enterprise, 16-17. 3MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES (See continuation sheet.) JGEOGRAPHICAL DATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY 16SS than On 6 Q.CFQ UTM REFERENCES } . I I I lilt ZONE EASTING NORTHING ZONE EASTING NORTHING cl . I LL . I . , I I . I . I . I P| . I I I . I . | I . I . I . VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION ' The boundary of the nominated property coincides with the legal lot known as 120 Broadway, New York, New York. LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES STATE CODE COUNTY CODE STATECODECOUNTYCODE FORM PREPARED BY NAME/TITLE ______George R. Adams s Director, Historic Landmarks Project_____ ORGANIZATION DATE American Association for State and Local History January 1977 STREET& NUMBER TELEPHONE 1*100 Eithth Avenue South___________________615-242-5583 CITY OR TOWN STATE Nashville, ____________________________ Tennessee _____ HSTATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CERTIFICATION THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS: NATIONAL__ STATE___ LOCAL___ As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service. FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVE SIGNATURE TITLE DATE .,,'.,/ y:,,' __.._!;:f;;llPp:p^^ ; Form-No.'lO-30Qa (Rev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM mmmmmm, CONTINUATION SHEET Eqult . Life ITEM NUMBER 7 PAGE Qn€i An arcade with beautiful coffered ceiling extends west to east through the center of the structure, from Broadway to Nassau Street, and creates almost identical principal entrances. Modern revolving, triple doors have replaced the original ones, but the entranceways remain unchanged. Each consists of a two- story-high, semicircular, coffered archway resting on plain pillars, flanked by plain pilasters, and ornamented by molded spandrels and a decorative scroll. Above each archway is a stone panel inscribed with the words "Equitable Building," and above this, on the fourth-floor level, is a panel of terra cotta work depicting a foliated scroll flanked by a pair of spread-winged eagles. Immediately above these, on the sixth- floor level, a flagpole-supporting crest and four sculptured eagles sit atop a stone balustrade and complete the entryway design. Plain doorways in the center bays of the north and south sides provide the only other nonbank entrances to the building, except a direct subway entrance that presently